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Behind the Lines (episode)
Sisko is transferred off the Defiant; Odo's loyalties to the Alpha Quadrant are questioned when one of the Founders arrives on the station. Summary The ''Defiant'' is in orbit of Starbase 375. In a ritual that's evolved over time, Captain Benjamin Sisko takes a discharged power cell that had been used in the phaser array and lays it on a rack on the mess hall wall, and makes a short speech. Everyone applauds. Admiral William Ross interrupts to tell Sisko that Starfleet Intelligence has discovered a massive sensor array near the Argolis Cluster which explains the Dominion's uncanny ability to always know where Federation starships are. It can detect ships from five sectors away. Ross orders Sisko to come up with an attack plan by 0800 the next morning. On Terok Nor, the Dominion-occupation name for Deep Space 9, Rom and Major Kira have arranged to put Cardassian officer Damar's PADD into the possession of the Jem'Hadar. In it, Damar proposes poisoning the last ration of ketracel-white, because if the Dominion lines through the Gamma Quadrant don't open up, the Jem'Hadar will run amok after all the white is gone. Some Jem'Hadar confront Damar in Quark's Place and a fight breaks out. Later Gul Dukat and Weyoun argue about how the unfortunate situation arose, with each defending his own. On Starbase 375 at 0800, Sisko notes that the Dominion's Argolis Array can detect cloaked ships up to two light years away and proposes approaching the array through the Argolis cluster itself. With the gravimetric distortions it will be difficult, but Defiant's crew can manage it. Admiral Ross approves the plan. The Defiant will leave as soon as current repairs are complete. Back on the station, Odo confronts Kira over the Damar PADD operation. Kira accuses Odo of taking his role on the station's Ruling Council too seriously, as if he were genuinely more interetsed in the smooth operation of the station than in defeating the Dominion. The Female Changeling enters, and asks Kira to leave. She says that she's trapped in the Alpha Quadrant becuase of the minefield blocking the wormhole and that she needs to see others of her kind. She and Odo argue over their past and Odo specifically mentions the punishment he received from her several years earlier. But she says that the past is over. Back on Starbase 375, Ross informs Sisko that Captain Bennet has been promoted to command of the Seventh Tactical Wing and that Sisko is to replace her immediately. Jadzia Dax will now captain the Defiant. Ross orders Sisko to review some tactical reports and present an opinion on the Bolian operation at 0600. After a meeting of Terok Nor's Ruling Council concludes, the Female Changeling enters. She is most concerned about the minefield and this is the first thing she says to Dukat. Weyoun piles on. Dukat says that even without reinforcements from the Gamma Quadrant they're still winning the war. Later, the Female Changeling comisserates with Odo about the strange solid behavior that he has to put up with all the time. They go to Odo's quarters. With gently probing questions, she manages to get Odo to admit that he's in love with Kira, and she concludes that that is the reason that Odo remains with the solids. He unburdens himself of the torture of his unrequited love. The Female Changeling is sympathetic. She offers to link and says that that is what Odo really needs. They link. Some time later, Kira finds Odo in his quarters. He seems to be in another world, but at peace. He admits to linking with the Female Changeling. Kira is quite angry. Odo tries to reassure her and tells her that linking is not about information exchange (which might give away her resistance cell). It's about thought and form and feeling. Kira says that it's about manipulation. The Female Changeling is not trustworthy. Odo thinks that perhaps he can convince her to call off the war. But this is a rationalization. Odo is mostly just curious about himself and his people. Kira understands this but says that now is not the time for that. Odo promises not to link with her again, at least not until the war is over. Damar, acting more full of himself than he usually does, orders a '27 Kanar from Quark. He can afford it now that he's been promoted to gul. Quark knows that Damar knows something important and manages, eventually, to ferret it out with free drinks. Later, an obviously drunk Quark intrudes on Kira's resistance cell meeting. Jake Sisko, Rom, and Odo are also there. Quark says that he's had enough of the Dominion and Cardassians. He wants to sell root beer again. When he's done with the self-pity, Quark says that Damar has found a way to deactivate the self-replicating mines. It's something about the deflector array. Rom figures that the secret is an anti-graviton beam, which the deflector array could be reconfigured to generate. There's one way to disable the deflector array: by accessing the EPS feed and overloading the waveguide. But getting to the EPS feed will set off an alarm, as it's in a secured conduit. So they plan for Odo to take the alarms off-line for five minutes during a security diagnostic. They schedule this for exactly 0800 the next morning. The Defiant went on its mission without Sisko. Back on Starbase 375, he's having touble adjusting to life away from the trenches. He won't be sleeping--it's his ship and his plan--and his friends. Ross tells him to get some sleep. Sisko's going to have to get used to this. The Defiant will be going on a lot of missions without him. On Terok Nor, Odo has a lot of questions for the Female Changeling. She repeats that words are insufficient and clumsy. She urges Odo to link with her. He resists at first but eventually succumbs. Just before 0800, Rom and Kira are putting the plan into motion. As Rom climbs into a conduit, Kira goes to check on Odo in his office, but he's not there. Just as she's about to conact Rom, Damar interrupts. When she steps away, it's too late; Rom had just opened the hatch to the secure conduit. Kira tells him to get out of there. He crawls back to where he came from and opens the outer hatch to see a Cardassians fire rifle pointed right at him. The Defiant returns to Starbase 375 triumphantly. With Ross and Sisko aboard, Dax now performs the power cell ritual that Sisko had earlier. Sisko realizes that they're a good crew. And that they don't really need him to command them. Kira storms down a corridor and bangs on Odo's door panel. She is beyond furious. In his quarters she yells to Odo that he let everyone down. Rom is in a holding cell! Odo may have handed the Alpha Quadrant to the Dominion! What does he have to say for himself? But Odo is elsewhere, mentally and emotionally. In the link, he says, nothing else matters. Things mattered to him once, but not any longer. Kira can never understand--she's a solid. Memorable Quotes "The Federation is ''losing this war. We can't sit by and do nothing." "''There are limits to what we can do." "I'm beginning to think you shouldn't have agreed to sit on that council. It's as if you're so invested in making sure the station runs smoothly you've forgotten there's a war going on." "Are you questioning my loyalties, Major?" : - Kira and Odo "It's an old naval tradition. Whoever's in command of a ship, regardless of rank, is referred to as 'captain.' ''" "''You mean if I had to take command, I would be called 'captain,' too?" "Cadet, by the time you took command, there'd be nobody left to call you anything." : - O'Brien and Nog "When you return to The Link, what will become of the entity I'm talking to right now?" "The drop becomes the ocean." "And if you choose to take solid form again?" "The ocean becomes a drop." : - Odo and The Female Changeling "Do you realize what you just did? You just handed the Alpha Quadrant to the Dominion." "I was in The Link." "Are you saying you ''forgot?" "''I didn't forget... it just didn't seem to matter." "A lot of people are going to die. Don't you care?!" "It has nothing to do with me." : - Kira and Odo Background Information *This episode is the fourth in the six-part "Dominion War Arc". The original title for the episode was "Life During Wartime". *Salome Jens makes her first appearance as the Female Changeling since the Season Four finale "Broken Link". *Damar is promoted from the rank of Glinn to Gul in this episode. *When Rom tries to sabotage the deflector array, he opens an alarmed hatch to a secure conduit. The hatch is labelled "A51: Restricted Area", in a likely nod to the "Area 51" US Air Force Flight Test Center at Groom Lake, Nevada. *O'Brien's comment to Nog that "by the time you took command, there'd be nobody left to call you anything," foreshadows the Season Six episode "Valiant", in which Nog is indeed called upon to take command of a Defiant-class ship after nearly all of the crew have been killed. Links and References Guest Stars *Jeffrey Combs as Weyoun *Marc Alaimo as S.G. Dukat *Max Grodénchik as Rom *Aron Eisenberg as Nog *Casey Biggs as Damar *Barry Jenner as William Ross *Salome Jens as the Female Changeling *Mark Allen Shepherd as Morn (uncredited) References ''Centaur''-type; commanding officer; ''Defiant''-class; Dominion War; ''Excelsior''-class; Founders; ''Galor''-class; gravimetric distortion; gravimetric shear; Haj; Jem'Hadar attack ship; Jem'Hadar battlecruiser; Angie Kirby; Krim; ''Miranda''-class; Saurian brandy; yamok sauce. Category:DS9 episodes de:Hinter der Linie es:Behind the Lines nl:Behind the Lines